Objective: To understand the characteristics of malaria prevalence and epidemic in Shandong Province in 2012 so as to provide the evidence for improving the work of the elimination of malaria.
Methods: The epidemiological data of malaria cases collected from the Disease Surveillance Information Reporting System of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention were analyzed with the descriptive epidemiological method for epidemiological characteristics of malaria.
Results: A total of 93 malaria cases were reported in Shandong Province in 2012 with the incidence of 0.097 per 100 thousand, with a reduction of 19.83% as compared to 2011. There were 93 imported cases which decreased by 4.12% compared with 97 cases in 2011 and it was the first year that there was no local infection. Jining, Qingdao and Weihai cities reported more cases, with 62.37% (58/93) of the total number of the whole province. Totally 93.55% of malaria cases were imported from Africa, most from Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria and Angola. There were 3 cases of imported ovale malaria firstly reported.
Conclusions: There were no local malaria cases reported in Shandong Province in 2012, but the imported malaria prevention and control was still not optimistic. In order to achieve the goal of malaria elimination in Shandong Province, it needs to continue to strengthen epidemic management, professional training and work supervision, strengthen management, advocacy and detection on the floating population, and explore multisectoral coordination mechanisms.